The European Union (EU) plays an important coordinating role in many crises, be it foot and mouth disease, floods or terrorist attacks. As in other EU policy areas, the interface between actors, institutions and individual mechanisms is often difficult to grasp for outsiders. The book "Crisis Management in the European Union. Cooperation in the Face of Emergencies", edited by Stefan Olsson, now provides an introduction to this framework.



The authors examine in detail the political processes and treaties that underlie the system of crisis management within the EU. Various instruments, such as the EU Solidarity Fund that provides financial assistance for post crisis management and reconstruction, are discussed individually for greater clarity. The chapters seem to conclude that EU policies are mostly "reactive". Strategies and instruments are not actively developed; rather they tend to be formulated in response to crises. One conspicuous example is the "Rapid Alerts" – a number of specialized early warning mechanisms that are developed in reaction to a particular type of crisis, for instance threats to animal health, infectious diseases or consumer protection.



Although key institutions are clearly presented and described throughout the book, the actual application of EU instruments is difficult to comprehend. The authors have used individual crises to illustrate specific actions, such as the evacuation of EU citizens during the Lebanon War in 2006. However, the quantity and complexity of information would have warranted the treatment of selected cases in separate chapters. Overall, the book provides a good institutional overview, even though the actual processes – from the early warning stage to post crisis management – are not adequately addressed. (Achim Maas)



The book can be purchased at http://www.springer.com/social+sciences/political+science/book/978-3-642-00696-8



and is also available in Google Books.

Published in: ECC-Newsletter, December 2009